Customer Reviews

Stealing of a Nation

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The problem with having your name bandied about exclusively by hipsters and indie geeks is that eventually they turn on you. Radio 4 were loosely affiliated with the DFA production team for about 5 minutes and because of this, hordes of Rapture fans and casual alternative types who liked "Dance to the Underground" (on the car commercial) flocked to Gotham! like it was the second coming of the Strokes. Critics weren't much better -- they dismissed the band for retreading Gang of Four and the Clash as if it wasn't bands like this, who carry such a torch, that exposed them to Gang of Four in the first place. Now Radio 4 have moved on beyond the indie labels and the hipsterdom and the Go4 retreads, and they're still being lambasted. The sad thing is that this record is actually quite strong; there isn't a lot of variation from song to song, but the choruses groove themselves into your head and the busy, slick dance production exalts Anthony Roman's bass to give the whole thing a mighty wallop. "Party Crashers" makes a great intro single, despite what Pitchfork may want you to think, mainly because it is recognizably *Radio 4* and probably the first song of theirs to override the derivation; it sounds wholly like themselves. "Absolute Affirmation" and "Transmission" both house tremendous central guitar-based hooks, while "FRA Type I & II" pumps up the bassline to unveil a healthy dub influence and "Shake the Foundation" throbs along at a post-modern funk/disco tempo. Lyrically, the band are still about political sloganeering and anthemic calls to action, but are thankfully never heavy enough to distract from the rhythms. In fact, the gloss, the beat, the good times -- all of these things seem to anticipate a resurgence of late 80s values (the INXS comparisons are really quite appropriate) that will come back into vogue as soon as the kids today get just a little bit older, and if they play their cards right, Radio 4 may just ride the crest of that wave all the way to the top.

At first I loved this CD, but then I realized that it didn't contain much depth and that the songs all sounded very similar. There are definitely highlights, but the ones that aren't are noticably worse. "Party Crashers", "State Of Alert", and "Absolute Affirmation", for example, are pretty good mindless songs, but really you wouldn't mind not having them either. It's one of those situations where if you have the songs, cool, but if you don't you wouldn't care much. Not an entirely unsatisfying purchase, but I couldn't really recommend this album when there are so many better ones out there to get first.

Highlights include:
"Party Crashers"
"State Of Alert"
"The Death Of American Radio"
"Nation"
"Absolute Affirmation"

This is an excellent album, however I disagree somewhat with many of the other reviewers. The songs are certainly derivative (and what songs aren't?) but to my ear Radio4 borrows heavily from one of my all-time favorite bands - INXS. The vocal similarities to Michael Hutchence are unmistakable. This comparison is a compliment, not a critique by any means. I'm very much looking forward to new material from these guys. If you like your music funky & punky with an on-your-feet electronic bounce, do yourself a favor and check these tracks out.

More consistent than Gotham!, Radio 4's major-label debut Stealing of a Nation is too much a good thing or, in the case of this dance-inducing CD, too much of the same thing. Their Gang-of-4-at-the-afterhours-disco riffs are fun and, on a song-by-song basis, motivating, but the beat doesn't let up on this 12 song CD until the last track, "Coming Up Empty", which becomes the most interesting piece here by dint of its novelty (a faux-Eastern melody line and a tempo that isn't defined by BMP's). And their politics are vague, other than that they seem against it, whatever "it" is. Still, Stealing is a beautifully engineered CD with thick beats and pounding guitars. At this point, content would be nice, but isn't necessary.

"Sometimes all the blame for a disaster can be traced to a simple bad decision. In the case of Radio Four and their album Stealing a Nation that crucial moment was when they hired Max Heyes to produce the record. Maybe it was record company pressure, maybe it was the band's own choice but however it came down, the result is the same. Stealing of a Nation is a slick, calculated record that misses its target on all accounts. It aims to be a big statement, a political treatise detailing how corrupt and wrong "the system is" set to incendiary rhythms meant to get people boogying while they tear down the walls of injustice. Fair enough, it is good to have ambition. Unfortunately the smoothed out sound of the disc and bland, lifeless tunes won't do much to inspire people. If you want devotion you have to throw in some tunes that people can sing along to. Ask Billy Bragg. Ask the Clash. And if they aren't singing along at least get them out on the dance floor like !!! does on Louden Up Now. The worst thing you can do is inspire yawns as Radio 4 have done here. Perhaps they should have retained the services of the DFA again as producers and created an album as exciting, raw and alive as Gotham. Instead Heyes (who has worked with Ocean Colour Scene and Doves to give you some idea where he is coming from) loads the sound up with lots of modern bells and whistles like techno sequencers, guitar effects and keyboard doodles but in the process pretty much ruins everything. The guitars sound distant and processed, the drums and bass aren't heavy enough to inspire much dance floor action, the vocals are way out in front of the music (which considering the mostly pedestrian and empty lyrics does no one any favors) and most mystifyingly, every song seems to have the same rat-a-tat-tat conga line that the Clash used in "This is Radio Clash". Overall it sounds less like the work of a band getting together and coming up with a sound or a direction than it does the result of a computer program cooked up to replicate the current newest wave of new wave sounds. Not that computers are necessarily bad, it is just that Radio 4 made such a great record without relying on them so heavily, one wishes they had gone for a similar approach here. As it is songs like " (Give Me All Your) Money" and "State of Alert" call to mind the era of Jesus Jones and EMF, "Dismiss the Sound" sounds like Depeche Mode in their hard rocking days, at other times you get traces of INXS or Alabama 3. These are all names you have to be sure Radio 4 were not aiming to be linked to but again it is about choices. You can stay true to yourself and your sound and maybe make a good record or you can aim for the big time and take the risk of making a record that leaves behind all the things that made you great. Having said all that there are some flashes of excitement here and there; "Absolute Affirmation" has an organic Ted Leo meets New Order feel, "State of Alert" has a hook that sticks with you for awhile and "Nation" has some spiffy dub effects. That's not a lot to hang your hat on however, their track record surely led fans to expect more. To paraphrase Beach Boy Carl Wilson speaking about his band's Smiley Smile album, The Stealing of a Nation is a foul ball when we were hoping for a home run." - Tim Sendra - AllMusicGuide

I don't know what to think when I read something bad about this album... if this is not one of the greatest albuns of this year, I don't know what to think... personal taste??? I don't know...
I just know one thing, I'm listening this since I got it, and, after Gotham, I was anxious... this is not what I was expecting, but, MUCH BETTER THAN THAT, this guys are GREAT, MARVELLOUS, I am always searching for new bands and is getting really difficult to find something that touch me like this guys did... I could put it in Gang of 4 and Clash matters, but, believe me, it's beyond... simply the best...